Celebrating Diversity Leaders event April 21st

Last Thursday I got the chance to attend the "Celebrating Diversity Leaders" event sponsored by the Dignity & Respect Campaign, the Delta Foundation and Vibrant Pittsburgh. I was glad I wore a suit. Probably the fanciest event I've ever been to! I don't know how many of you know about/have been to the Delta Foundation's executive directors' pad in Mt. Washington, but it is a sight to behold. I was that nerd reading the framed articles on the wall about the house's architecture (the master bath has 16 shower heads!). It was a gorgeous night too.

Elizabeth Birch, former director of the HRC was the main speaker, and while she was debunking some myths about the gay community (i.e. we are all rich) a cat darted through the crowd right toward her! She picked it up and confirmed the cat's heterosexuality using her gaydar and resumed her speech. Amazing.

I really got my schmooze on and met some folks I'm excited to contact soon about working together on projects.

I'm keeping my eye out for event photos and will share them here soon!

--Ray

Quickie Employer Survey

Ok, so on April 13th I attended an internship and job fair at Pitt with my co-worker Michael B. and sported my new suit for the first time. Our task was to get the word out to Pitt students that they can find internship opportunities on the RIC website and receive more tailored help from one of us. Answered a lot of similar questions, passed out a lot of business cards and tri-folds, enjoyed the William Pitt Union Hall building.
After a while I got the idea to go around asking some survey questions of the employers who had set up shop regarding non-discrimination policies and LGBT employee comfort. Interesting results followed...

Questions:
1. Does ______ have a non-discrimination policy?
2. Does this policy contain protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression?
3. Based on your experience working for ______ how comfortable would an openly gay or lesbian employee be?
4. How comfortable would an openly transgender employee be?

Comfort scale: Not at all comfortable, Comfortable, Very Comfortable

Respondents: 22
Aflac, City of Pgh Parks and Recreation, Avon, Stella & Dot, Pittsburgh University, Pizza Hut, Lowe's, Americorps, Lifesteps, Peacecorps, Mainstay Life, Pitt Student Life Office, Providence Point Baptist Home, Sunglass Hut, Clean Water Action, The Limited, Laurel Mountain Christian Camp, Talbot's, REI, Crown Cork & Seal, Compunetix, Aeropostale

Employer industries:
Retail-8
Health care-3
Education-2
Food service-1
Manufacturing-1
Information-1
Service-3
Other-3 (insurance, summer camp, environmental advocacy)

Results:
Question 1:
Yes: 19
No: 0
Not sure: 1
Originally Not sure: 3 (of those, 2 are "Yes")

Question 2:
Yes (SO & GIE): 12
No (SO not GIE): 5
No (neither are protected): 3
Not sure: 2
Originally Not sure: 8 (of those, 4 are "Yes", 1 "No", 1 "SO not GIE")

Question 3:
Very comfortable: 16
Comfortable: 4
Not at all comfortable: 1
Not sure: 1

Question 4:
Very comfortable: 7
Comfortable: 8
Not at all comfortable: 1
Not sure: 6

Discussion:
Every employer present has a non-discrimination policy when it comes to hiring practices. I couldn't confirm one from Stella & Dot but it's likely they do and I just can't find it on their website. Some respondents didn't know for sure whether such a policy existed, some places offered cultural competency training for new hires, some places also had an anti-harassment policy.
Some company representatives had no idea about the actual language in the policy (whether it included SO and/or GIE), and others said "Oh! We just added gender identity and expression a couple of months ago!" or "No, we definitely don't protect against gender identity and expression discrimination because I'm queer and pay attention to these things," or "No we definitely don't protect against sexual orientation discrimination because we're a Christian organization and we don't hire gay people," (although another Christian organization most certainly protected this category and even said an openly gay person would feel very comfortable working there).
Many company reps (an overwhelming 16 out of 22) said that an openly gay or lesbian person would be "very comfortable" working for them. A couple people said it was really hard for them to say how comfortable a gay person would be because they don't identify that way. One person decided to officially answer "not sure" for this reason and I respect that awareness.
When I asked about an openly transgender person's comfort level, I really got a range of answers. I got a couple comments like, "Well I guess that would depend on the person's comfort level with themselves, as we all own our individual businesses and deal directly with customers." This concept is similar to, "We do a lot of work directly with the public," or "We have many branches in small towns." These responses kind of place the burden on the transgender person themselves--to be thick-skinned or pass well and not rely on the company to put them first over the customers. I got way more "Not sure"s in this category. Thinking of a transgender person's job comfort level is probably just way outside the experience of most employees.
Many people based their answers of "Very comfortable" on the perception that their workplaces are full of "liberal" people, everyone is really welcoming, etc. But not usually on clear examples I would have liked to hear like, "We do not tolerate harassment or hateful language" or "We have comprehensive employee training on such topics" or "I know a gay person at work who says he is very happy working here."
I did get one or too specific examples of workplace comfort: "We make sure customers feel comfortable in the changing rooms in our store," and "I know openly gay people at work."
I am very curious about how people would answer these questions anonymously, how they would answer them if I did not pass or was not wearing a suit, or if CEO's were the ones answering the questions. This gives me an idea to create similar short questionnaires for employers who attend our workshops using specific examples of positive or negative workplace environment issues.

Project Intern: LGBT Community Outreach

So--Some big recent developments to report. "Project Intern: LGBT Community Outreach" is under way! This project identifies organizations and businesses in southwestern PA who offer internships and are interested in direct outreach to the LGBT community to advertise those internship opportunities. LGBT students looking for internships will be able to search through the Regional Internship Center website to find positions with employers who are committed to LGBT inclusion in the workplace. Students will also receive email updates of available positions. Employers who sign on will fill out surveys about workplace environment and will have the opportunity to work with the RIC to develop the best internship program for both the employer and for the intern (this in the form of employer workshops, a monthly program developed by the RIC).
So far, there are 5 or 6 organizations that are interested. And 2 LGBT student groups. For-profit businesses are kind of a blind spot for me but there are organizations in Pittsburgh that focus on diversity in the workplace and have business contacts.

Also--I just found out 2 days ago that my workshop proposal was accepted for this year's Philly Trans Health Conference. Caught me a little off guard since it was about 3 weeks after they said I would hear back about it...But after last night's meeting with Michelle (thanks!) I feel better about what that can be. In general I'm freaked out about how to boil down all this noise into one true note...Like what do I want to leave in my wake? It must be clear, and simple, and affective. What do I want to leave the RIC? What do I want to leave to the community? What do I want to give to the folks who (hopefully) show up to my workshop? I've been asking myself these questions all along--but I still don't feel much closer to the answers.

I want to start a dialogue--between QUILTBAG folks and employers, between QUILTBAG folks and other QUILTBAG folks about all the things that we can do and others can do to make our workplaces into places that we want to be--where who we are is an asset not a drawback. We can inform each other about what works, what doesn't work, what our major concerns are, what resources we need that are specific to our community. It's about investing in the work that we do--and the future careers (by this I don't just mean employment) of LGBT youth. And I guess I don't just mean youth either, as folks of all ages may deal with conflict at work about being queer.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert Benefit Film Screening April 6th!

Please join the Initiative for Transgender Leadership and co-sponsor Persad Center for a benefit film screening of "The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert," community mixer, and panel discussion at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater on April 6th, 2011.

The purpose of the Initiative for Transgender Leadership (ITL) is to positively impact community life through professional and leadership development of transgender youth. This event provides an opportunity to bring together members of the LGBT and allied community in the Pittsburgh area for a night of fun to support the Initiative for Transgender Leadership (ITL), which provides a 10-month paid fellowship opportunity to one transgender-identified youth. Since January, I have been serving the fellowship at the Regional Internship Center. Over the course of 10-months I will complete a project that will serve the missions of both the RIC and the ITL.



WHAT: "The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert" benefit film screening, community mixer and panel discussion.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 6th, 2011, beginning at 6:30pm with a mixer, film starts at 7:00, discussion follows the film.

WHERE: The Kelly-Strayhorn Theater at 5941 Penn Ave. in East Liberty

TICKETS: Available at the Kelly-Strayhorn. Tickets are suggested donation of $10 or $5 for students/youth under 25

PLUS: Raffle prizes too! Tickets available for $1, discounts for 5, 10 or 20

All proceeds go to benefit the Initiative for Transgender Leadership.
Hope to see you there!

ITL on Positive Outlook with Nayck Feliz

Hi all! Last Thursday Mad and I got the opportunity to join Nayck Feliz, founder and host of Positive OUTlook, to talk to him about the Initiative for Transgender Leadership. Positive OUTlook is a community health and wellness program on OUT TV Pittsburgh (www.outonline.com) which broadcasts video 24/7 worldwide. Seriously, people are watching these shows from Saudi Arabia! After the live broadcast, programs are uploaded to the YouTube channel found by searching OutTVPittsburgh. I know it all seems confusing but they are doing some really cool things and you should check them out!

Once we got the hang of speaking loud enough for folks to hear us, we had a great time talking about the ITL and recent developments, the Regional Internship Center, and I shared a little of my own history and my current project. It's very weird to watch myself on the green screen and see how much I fidget and mumble and avoid eye-contact and how awkward I am...oh well.

Nayck is so friendly it was easy to talk to him regardless of my awkwardness and we even discovered mid-show that we had met before at the Steelers kick-off game & concert in '09!

Please check out the video below!

Ode to Being Organized

This morning I biked to work--luckily did not get rained on--and immediately set to work getting rid of all the extraneous stuff that's accumulated on my desk in the past two months. I gave the dusty area behind the computer a much-needed swipe with a paper towel, chucked irrelevant sticky notes, and tacked up this week's plan right in the middle of one of the cubicle walls.

Big ideas for the week:
outreach--editing and finalizing the "invitations" to join a new project to connect LGBT student groups with employers offering internships in the SWPA region
time management--spending the time to make lists, prioritize and think things through; setting up systems to keep track of ongoing conversations; loading my Google calendar with all of the things I have to do each day
side projects--moving side projects just one step forward as these are the things that get pushed back when the ITL/RIC work I have to do puddles out over the course of a day due to poor planning

All of this comes out of a conversation with Jen last week about time management and big ideas. It's been two months and by now things need to get organized and stay organized to make sure everything stays on track. Jen even recommended deliberately setting time aside for relationships, sleep, etc to make sure all needs are being met and not just the job stuff.

Tomorrow I get picked up at 6:30 am to go to my first employer workshop in New Kensington. This is an opportunity to observe the flow of the workshop (helping employers develop internship programs) with the future goal in mind to lead one of these things myself.

Wednesday I'll be working at Garden Dreams, an urban garden & seedling operation in Wilkinsburg. I plan to work there on Fridays until the first week in June. It's great fun having a hand in the growing of nearly 30,000 baby plants of all varieties: tomatoes, peppers, basil and herbs mostly.

Thursday Mad and I head to the Southside for a filmed interview with Out TV, and then later that night I'll go to a Pitt Rainbow Alliance meeting briefly to share what's up with the new project to connect LGBT student groups with employers offering internships.

Friday brings a video interview with AHEADD (Achieving in Higher Education with Autism/Developmental Disabilities) to put on the RIC blog. Last week, Michael and I interviewed ABROAD (Advisory Board on Autism and Related Disorders). Then off to a nerdy Lord of the Rings-themed party at Cyberpunk Apocalypse in Upper Lawrenceville.

And Saturday--a "Make Jobs Not War" protest in front of Lawrenceville United, a meeting with Mad to continue our backwards planning work, and later, my first time dj-ing a big party at a friends house. Add a few hockey games to watch, a prospective Pitt student coming to visit, and, you know, sleeping, eating...it all makes for a busy week indeed. But now I know I can take it on.

Tah-tah!
Rayden

Trans Training with the Presbyterian Taskforce on Ministry with Sexual Minorities

Last Wednesday, Mad and I attending a meeting of the Taskforce on Ministry with Sexual Minorities of Pittsburgh Presbytery. We were there to present a cultural competency PowerPoint about transgender concepts and terminology. Taking a few minutes before the lecture, Mad and I sat and talked in the library of the beautifully remodeled Pittsburgh Presbytery building on the North Side. We brought our distractions and anxieties into the open and let them go. We tried to figure out what the members of this Taskforce meant to us--what they are bringing to the table--and also what we'd like to be for them.
After some lively discussion about the Academy Awards and some snacking, we begun by asking the members of the Taskforce to again introduce themselves and share what they would like to get out of the training we were about to give.
There were a wide range of responses--one person described herself as a blank slate, someone else wanted to know about the psychology of being transgender, and another wanted some information she could bring to inform others. It was clear from the start that everyone was comfortably sharing what they did and did not know--a rare thing for sure. It was helpful for us to know where folks were at so we could know how to meet them halfway.
Something a little different we tried with the PowerPoint was staggering the definitions throughout--rather than bombard the audience with a lot of terms at once. We made it a point to elicit as much discussion as possible--to get people thinking about how gender stereotypes and feelings of difference affect not only folks under the transgender umbrella, but everyone.
Definitions are always difficult because they change so rapidly and some people who fit the definitions as well describe them might not use the same words themselves. I like that we focused a little more than usual on the transgender community as a community, with lots of different groups on the fringes, with conflicting opinions, with a rich history and culture.
It took a little while for me to open up but as the night went on, we were all sharing more about ourselves--transgender people we have met or currently know, experiences regarding gender stereotypes, stories of empathy and compassion for transgender people, stories of discomfort and human reactions to things we don't understand.
One of my favorite parts was the slide diagramming sex, gender role/identity, gender presentation and sexual identity. Each category used a continuum to illustrate the space between concepts like male and female, men and women. I wouldn't say that a line, even with gradation, is fully appropriate for such a complicated concept as gender expression (although some people might say, "duh! that's easy! you're one or the other." well, whatever). but any method of visualizing concepts that we take for granted in the day-to-day can be helpful in the right context.
Gender, politics, religion--all concepts best understood in terms of gradation, illustrated with continua, with histories, cultures and connotations behind every definition Being comfortable with the "gray" and being able to sit within the question are concepts that come up again and again...
For example, I was raised Jewish, went to Jewish summer camp for a few years, visited Israel a couple years ago. In some ways I identify very strongly with that upbringing. In other ways, organized religion is not at all important to me, and tends to leave a bad taste. Being queer, transgender and feminist has something to do with that. I don't see a lot of safe space in religion for those identities. But then I meet people for whom being queer is just as important as being Christian. And then I see how being "born again" is not unlike gender transition, or coming out. Or putting faith in something to get you through. Or how stories of our history as human beings become lessons to live by. See-overlap everywhere you go.

Check out More Light Presbyterians here: http://www.mlp.org/

Okay so, it's been a while, I know

Dear folks--

I finally feel like I've escaped from the February doldrums. Have you? The past two days have been gorgeous and great for biking. I'm working remotely today at Voluto Coffee House in Garfield with the sun on my back. Earlier today I attended a press conference at Big Brothers Big Sisters for the unveiling of a new program top help children of incarcerated parents, inspired by Philadelphia's first African-American mayor, the Reverend Dr. W. Wilson Goode. He talked about the widespread negative effects the prison system has on children in this country and how programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters can create positive change for those children.

Last night I watched Prison Town, USA a PBS documentary about Susanville, CA, a town with a huge prison system creating devastating effects on a small-town's community and economy. It makes me angry that the U.S. imprisons way more people than all the European countries combined. And we profit off of a system that destroys people's lives. There has got to be a better way...

I'm thankful to be in a position to live within my means so I don't have to rely on an underground economy to survive, and I'm thankful that Pittsburgh has more job opportunities than just corrections. There are so many systems that need work in our community and so many ways that passionate people can get involved. There are certainly barriers to sustainable and affirming employment and I wonder what contributions I can make to removing those barriers. My work as an ITL fellow has a lot to do with this. In fact, I just go the go-ahead to put my project plan into action.

My mission is as follows:

Through community education, internship program development, networking, activism, various media communications, and a “whole self”-focused workplace initiative, I will serve the mission of the RIC, the ITL as well as my own personal mission to enact change through storytelling.

My main focus areas are: media networks and development, the Regional Internship Center's internship network, and my own community presence. One hang up on the way to completing the Project Plan was figuring out just how to measure what it is I'm doing. Impossible to track progress without some kind of number plugging/crunching. But it was hard to set numbers and say, okay I'm going to do this many of these and that many of those--because, you know, what if I get 29 instead of 30?! I want my goals to be challenging but not impossible. It seems though, that so much about what Jen and Bobby and Mad talk about is how to envision the completed project and plan out the steps necessary to make that happen.

And it starts with writing here consistently!

Peace,
Rayden

At the intersections--

Busy, busy, busy...What's cool is everything I'm busy with seems to be all connected to this fellowship. There's things to do at the RIC--people to follow up with, surveys to plan, research to investigate and turn around, social media websites to update. There's things to do for the Health Brigade, a project I'm working on with some friends--working out the details for the website, compiling our mission statement, figuring out just what "good care" looks like and how to start people talking about good care and where to find it. There's things to do with "Stop Transphobic Reporting Now!"--local and national connections to make, meetings to attend, people to update...Not to mention getting library books reasonably on time, washing the dishes, searching for work-appropriate clothes in my size, supporting cool stuff other people are doing, watching the (mostly disappointing) Grammy's, celebrating Valetine's Day with my sweetheart and friends by eating heart-shaped pizza and hanging out...Then things all seem to come together when I talk with a friend at my local queer bar about starting a sexual health campaign for female-born, masculine-presenting folks at a clinic offering internships!

And hey! Did you hear Rustbelt Radio on WRCT, WPTS, podcast, streaming live, etc. etc. this week?? They interviewed me for a story about the recent transphobic news story. Contact me to stay involved with that or join the Facebook group.

So now it's been nearly a month since the fellowship began. I'm keeping up with everything better than I thought, but I can feel another swell coming soon. Detailed project plan is nearly complete and thinking about bringing together LGBT student groups in the area with LGBT-focused internship opportunities, tapping all involved about being LGBT in the workplace and/or what LGBT organizations bring to the larger community and incorporating that with the larger student/internship systems at work in the SWPA region...

One cool thing I got to do recently was visit the Good Grief Center for Bereavement Support in Squirrel Hill to interview the staff there for a video blog about their internship program. (I refuse to say "vlog") The GGC provides free support (one-on-one, over-the-phone and in groups) to those grieving the loss of a loved one, or even anticipated loss. I got a chance to talk further with them about the grieving process, especially how the "talking about it" seems to help so much: people experiencing grief "have to tell their story, sometimes many times, to make it more concrete, more real for themselves." Yes--This idea keeps coming up everywhere if I take a little time to search for it.

p.s. My new favorite queer community alphabet soup combo: QUILTBAG--queer/questioning, intersex, lesbian, trans, bisexual, asexual/ally, gay. LOVE this! (Thanks Alicia!)

Martin Niemöller

p.p.s. Thanks, Briana, for pointing me in the direction of Lee Harrington's essay "Growing Beautiful Flowers at the Intersections: From Complex Ecosystems to Interstitial Collaboration." This reminds me of how we would have nothing without the total combination of all of our efforts, and how great and beautiful "flowers" erupt at the intersections of our selves and communities. It also reminds me of the poem "First they came" by Martin Niemöller and of proposed Title X  funding-slash (take action!) and how each of us can only do so much alone, but together we can have so much more.

Transphobia in Journalism: Give WPXI a Piece of Your Mind

Dear friends,

Please read this news story from WPXI and click the link to get to the video clip. This is a disgusting example of transphobia.

I am trying to get in contact with the Allegheny County Jail to get more information about the arrested individuals and write to them in the hope that we can do something for them. In the meanwhile, please call WPXI, tell them that this is unacceptable (412-237-1100) and spread this story far and wide.

In solidarity,
Rayden

Update: I created a facebook group about this found here. I'm wondering what kind of community response this requires. I actually had a long and, I think, productive, talk with Vince Sims today about why that story is offensive even if, according to him, it was not meant to come off that way. I was very upset at first but we ended up getting somewhere. He expressed interest in doing a story, basically about how trans people are members of our community and this is not an okay way to talk about them.

This is all so relevant considering the recent release of "Injustice at Every Turn," the first comprehensive study of the discrimination faced by, and resilience of, transgender and gender-variant people in the U.S.

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 4 – The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) today released a comprehensive new report, "Injustice at Every Turn," revealing the depth of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people in a wide range of areas, including education, health care, employment, and housing. The study, based on the results from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), was based on responses from over 6,450 participants. The NTDS is the first large-scale national study of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming Americans, and paints a more complete picture than any prior research to date.

I'm also including a link to my partner Ocean's blog with a letter she wrote to WPXI.
--
This is all what we've been fighting for, no?

Update #2: Neither person is currently being held in the Allegheny County Jail. However, there is a loud community response to this story from WPXI and also about the language in the police report. No one at the police department has gotten back to me yet. We may do a story with Rustbelt Radio at WRCT and there might be other media coverage of the response. Stay tuned!